Pirates right-hander Jameson Taillon is tentatively scheduled to undergo surgery on his elbow flexor tendon sometime in the next few weeks, The Athletic’s Rob Biertempfel reports (subscription required). The procedure will keep Taillon out of action for roughly seven to nine months, so he could be back on the mound for Pittsburgh sometime in May if everything goes according to plan.
While Taillon faces a lengthy recovery period, it represents a more optimistic timeline than Tommy John surgery, which was the initial concern when Taillon was shut down with forearm pain last week. Fortunately, it doesn’t seem like a TJ procedure (which would be Taillon’s second) is necessary, outside of “a small chance” more damage is found within Taillon’s elbow during the tendon surgery. Taillon’s elbow, however, appeared to be intact after being examined by Dr. David Altchek earlier this week; Altchek also performed Taillon’s original Tommy John surgery back in 2014.
Injuries have limited Taillon to just 37 1/3 innings this season, a disappointing follow-up to what seemed like a breakout year for the right-hander in 2018. Taillon posted a 3.20 ERA over 191 innings for the Pirates last year, and certainly seemed to be stepping up as the ace of Pittsburgh’s rotation. Hopes that Taillon would pitch again in 2019 were dashed by last week’s news, though it seems as if he’ll be able to return to active duty for at least most of the 2020 campaign. Tommy John surgery, of course, would have sidelined Taillon for 12-15 months, all but certainly keeping him on the injured list until 2021.
Taillon’s abbreviated 2019 campaign will obviously have a significant impact on his future salary, as he will be eligible for arbitration for the first of three times this offseason. He’ll still receive a big bump beyond the minimum salary, albeit much less than he would have earned if he’d been able to replicate his 2018 numbers this season.
The Pirates can go into their offseason plans with the expectation that Taillon will, for now, be back at the front of the rotation for much of 2020, though the team is likely still going to look into adding pitching (almost surely of the lower-cost variety) over the winter.
Nothing is going right for this man, best of luck Jameson!
Well, it was either this or another Tommy John, so…this is, sadly, great news.
Any chance the Pirates have of doing something next year requires Taillon to come back and be effective.
Good news for Nutting!
Collect the insurance money on his contract. Phew, would hate to cut profit margins and put a good team on the field…
stfu
Man, that’s a real shame. Taillon can’t catch a break. Best of luck in his recovery.
did anyone really think the pirates would be worse than cincy? i had my hopes but they really are terrible. just think once marte is gone, down they go, never to see the light of day for years to come. doom dooom dooooom
In 5 years when the Pirates still have a productive Moran & Musgrove, & possibly even Martin & Feliz…& Gerrit Cole is but a distant memory to Houston fans, will the sentiment still be doom, doom, doom.? Once Cole is gone to California next year they’ll be nothing left from the trade. Everyone will say “the Pirates sure took the Astros on that trade!”
We’ve heard this before. Why not tack on, “When Archer is a consistent 20 game winner” while you’re at it. It has as much relevance. Making a couple bad moves is one thing, giving away the farm and continually getting fleeced are another
It says something that local media has now turned on this ownership and that the fan base is sick of it. For every rose colored glasses fortune cookie like yours, there is the sobering reality that none of these guys will be allowed to progress to that level—however lofty—as a Pirate
“…has now turned…”
Must be a different definition of “now” than I know.
I mean, I’m not saying that every Pirates move is good, but I don’t think the Cole trade is as bad as it seems to be. Moran and Musgrove shown they can be productive. They definitley could have gotten something better, but I’m not complaining about it.
@forwhom…..and know turned happened, whet 5 years ago? I was right too about the spin on the deadline. Still crying tonight that NH did not make 5 or 6 more deals. Even was complaining in one breath about how much of a bad person Kela was and the next complaining that NH had a chance to rid the team of this horrible person and get a return back. So, if Kela is such a bad person now, why would any other team want him?? Such twisted logic….,acts like all NH had to do was make a few phone calls and the trades would have just happened. Probably was really wishing NH did make the trades and of course not have received quality for anyone and the could have railed about cheap Nutting for the next year…..
@ mlb1225. Ditto. Was a nice deal. Considering the year put up his last year in the Burgh, was pretty decent
So shedding Dickerson’s payroll for next to nothing in return and staying the course as a team that is currently going to pick 7th in next year’s draft and probably will be top 5 once the season is over (let’s go Toronto, Seattle, and Miami) and has seen only one divisional, not even LCS series, in the last 27ish years was the right approach at the trade deadline?
Haha! I was thinking the same thing.
I think when he says now he means “in the last 50 years or so”.
They got “next to nothing” for Dickerson….so….why didn’t they trade the other guys for even less?
Odd complaint.
The Rays still won at the deadline this time last year. I just wanted to give Pirates fans a friendly reminder.
Trust me….we know. We don’t need a reminder of one of the worst deals in Pirate history.
Glasnow sure is doing a fine job now, isn’t he?
He won as many games in a month and a half than Archer has in his entire Pirate career but hey, great point
Wins… lol
How’s Glasnow doing now?
Still more valuable to his team than chris archer
Not if he never pitches again or is not nearly as good as he was to start this season. He had never done that before and no guarantees that he can repeat it especially after an injury and being out so long.
He needs to be better than replacement to be better than Archer at this point.
All gm’s make mistakes. Just move on. Bucs should let cervelli, archer and the outfielder they got from Cleveland who never played. That gives them 20 million to go out and get some pitching
20m will get you Harvey and Cahill… 20m doesnt buy much anymore.
I always laugh at the goofs that say just spend some money and win more. It’s as if these imbeciles haven’t noticed how much money these awful players get in free agency every year that barely put up a positive war and yet they think these guys will lead them to the playoffs.
Oh but they would only sign the good players not the bad ones.
The biggest problem with the Pirates is that they treat free agency like the Orioles treated the international market. They simply ignore it as a means for improvement. It would be one thing for them to try signing starting caliber free that end up failing but instead they sign marginal free agents and thrust them into starting or more prominent roles than they should be trusted with simply because they (both the free agents and Pirates management/ownership) are cheap.
NH will actually have to earn his pay and sign some decent pitchers this year,
The Jordan Lyles experiment is over.
More of the same mumbo jumbo will not impress anyone.
Or he could do the smart thing and just let the 5 best guys in the organization start in the rotation because signing free agent SP is too risky and almost never works despite what the simpletons on here who are probably living with crippling debt because they just go all in and buy whatever they want whenever they wan.
Payroll started at under 80 million this season. With Dickerson, Cervelli, and Kang off the books next year I bet payroll is under 70 million next year yet just three years ago payroll was at 100 million. They have the money to spend, just refuse to cut into their profits.
I don’t know how many of you remember Richie Hebner but, I think Moran could be as good. His splits against lefties are bad, but how many lefties do they really face in a season. Put him in there and let him play. He has shown that he is capable.
Pitching: Keller will be up next year. They will probably wait so he is not a Super 2 but I think he should start the season with the big club. Also, they could get a big haul in the offseason for Vasquez. Especially when the LAD lose in the 1st round
@thepghkid….Anyone who remembers Richie knows it is not pronounced the way it looks….You have to say it like Richie did, with the heavy Boston accent. ::) Then, and only then can you say you remember Mr. Hebnah 🙂
I agree that he should not go for Gerritt Cole but there were plenty of pitchers late in the last offseason that could have helped the Pirates without committing a lot of money..
That would have given him some depth in the event of injury.
It is difficult unless you have an ouija board to figure out who to sign.
Even Lyles worked out for a couple of months.
The Pirates do not have a good enough scouting and development team to be able to rely on their farmhands solely.
Thinking that the Pirates will be signing a few FA starters. Will not be a big time name but several decent names.
Got interrupted before I could edit and finish. Thinking like one or two Gonzalez or even a Miley type guy.s unless they want the moon for money, and then a couple of potential bounce back guys like what AJ Burnett brought.
Could’ve signed Gonzalez and Miley last offseason but didn’t. I agree they will sign a pitcher or two in free agency, just don’t share your belief that they will sign a pitcher worth putting in a MLB rotation.
20 million buys a so-so NBA player , too.